COVID-19 : Cabinet Secy reviews containment measures, resumption of economic activities

Jammu: Cabinet Secretary, Rajiv Gauba Saturday held video conference interaction with the Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories to review implementation of lockdown restrictions in the country and resumption of economic activities as per the guidelines of the Government of India.
Home Secretary, Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Foreign Secretary, Secretary, Economic Affairs, Secretary, Labour & Employment, and other senior officers of concerned Ministries attended the video conference.
Chief Secretary, BVR Subrahmanyam, DGP J&K Dilbag Singh, Principal Secretary, Home, Commissioner Secretary, Industries, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Sanjiv Verma and IGP Jammu, Mukesh Singh participated in the interaction through video conference.
While interacting with the Chief Secretaries, the Cabinet Secretary emphasized on an effective containment strategy to be adopted by all to minimize the spread of coronavirus especially in the hot spot areas. Continued strong action is required from all States & UTs on surveillance front and testing needs to be done in aggressive manner to find out the people infected by the virus and providing them medical treatment as per the health protocol, he added.
“We need to augment our testing capacity further involving both private and public sector and also to reduce the time taken in testing process to get things in our control”, the Cabinet Secretary maintained.
With regard to the resumption of economic activities as permitted under the NDMA Act, the Cabinet Secretary asked all the Chief Secretaries to follow the revised guidelines issues by GoI. He stressed on passing necessary instructions to the field staff so that the activities can go on smoothly and people linked to those activities are facilitated.
Issues relating to migrant labour and Indian nationals stranded abroad were also deliberated during the interaction. The Cabinet Secretary asked the States/UTs to look after the migrant labour and provide them all necessary support including food and shelter. He asked all the States/UTs to be in constant touch with each other to resolve any issue related to migrant labour.
He said Ministry of External Affairs has started the process of consultation with the States/UTs for bringing back the Indian nationals stranded in different countries. The decision in this regard would be taken after getting feedback on preparedness of the States/UTs to receive such people and taking into consideration all required health precautions, the Cabinet Secretary added.
Cabinet Secretary complimented all for their efforts in tackling COVID-19 and said our collective efforts have resulted in significant improvement in minimizing the spread of coronavirus. He said we all have to deal with the situation while working on multiple fronts simultaneously but our focus must retain on strong containment measures for safety of our people.
Cabinet Secretary also sought feedback from the Chief Secretaries on implementations of lockdown restrictions and status of economic activities permitted as per the revised guidelines issued by GoI.
Chief Secretaries briefed the Cabinet Secretary about the measures they have taken for containment of the disease and also raised issues which needs intervention of GoI for their redressal. The Cabinet Secretary said Government of India is addressing the issues being flagged by the States/UTs and assured that all kind of necessary support would be provided to them in combating the coronavirus.